Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for May 13, 2016

Here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with lots of awards, including an update of the Hugo Awards shortlist, reactions to Captain America: Civil War and X-Men Apocalypse, women in science fiction and fantasy as well as the usual mix of writing advice, interviews, reviews, con reports and crowdfunding projects as well as free online fiction. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• The participants of the former SF Signal Mind Meld, which has now found a new home at SFF World, shares which recent SFF works they enjoyed, even though they knew little about them beforehand.
• E.G. Cosh and Niall Harrison share the 2015 SF Count, an analysis of gender and racial representation in SFF reviewing.
• Jeff Somers shares the ten fiercest mothers in fantasy and science fiction. 
• Chris Howard shares five science fiction books featuring drug abuse.  
• Corinne Duyvis talks about problematic disability metaphors in science fiction and fantasy.
• Maria Popova shares Ursula K. LeGuin's thoughts on power, oppression, freedom and storytelling.
• Teddy Jamieson profiles Ken MacLeod.  
• John Bardinelli shares his appreciation for the works of Frank Herbert that are not Dune. 
• James Nicoll shares his thoughts on Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein. 
• From Couch to Moon takes a look at notable military science fiction old and new.
• Sherwood Smith shares her appreciation for Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities series. 
• Gilbert Colon takes a look at Henry Rider Haggard's Ayesha a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed as a forerunner of the Evil Queen in Disney's Snow White and the White Witch in C.S. Lewis Narnia series among others.
• Charlie Jane Anders discusses the islamic roots of science fiction. 
• Ted Chiang shares his appreciation for the Chinese language and writing.
• Ryan Howse takes a look at the Epic of Gilgamesh as one of the foundations of modern fantasy.
• Graeme Whiting, headmaster of a British private school, claims that fantasy fiction is harmful for children and could cause mental illness. 
• K.M. Carroll shares three things werewolves can teach us about romance.
• Aderyn Wood explains why vampire fiction doesn't suck.
• Katie Rogers reports about the Slender Man urban legend.
• Adam Whitehead muses about why so many genre blogs seem to have slowed down or shut down altogether of late.
• S.C. Flynn shares a list of good SFF blogs to replace those that have recently closed.
• Clara Mae wonders why there are so few women of colour in genre movies and TV series.
• Germain Lussier shares his thoughts on the first four episodes of Preacher, the TV adaptation of Garth Ennis' famous comic. 
• Cheryl Eddy offers a defence of Joel Schumacher, whose Batman movies from the 1990s are widely disliked.
• Galactic Journey shares their appreciation for the 1961 movie Gorgo. 
• David Platt shares an introduction to African science fiction films. 
• James H. Burns reveals the connection between Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura and Storm of the X-Men.
• Charlotte Geater explains that the romance comics of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s hated women.
• Andrew Liptak profiles fan artist Matthew Callahan. 
• Jennifer Culp profiles Myrtle R. Douglas a.k.a. Morojo, fanzine writer and editor as well as the woman who invented cosplay.

Awards:

• The two Hugo finalists who withdrew after the nominations were announced have been replaced with two new Hugo nominees. 
• Damien Walter reports on a controversy surrounding the Locus Awards. 
• The winners of the Spectrum 23 Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire have been announced.
• Nominations are open for the Carl Brandon Society Awards.
• Ceridwen Christensen attempts to predict who will win the Nebula Awards. 

Comments on Captain America: Civil War:

• Germain Lussier points out that Captain America: Civil War is the great Avengers film Age of Ultron should have been.
• Emily Asher Perrin declares that Captain America: Civil War is the emotional pinnacle of superhero movies.
• Abigail Nussbaum shares her thoughts on Captain America: Civil War.
• Michi Trota shares her thoughts on Captain America: Civil War. 
• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on Captain America: Civil War.
• Amanda Marcotte claims that Captain America: Civil War ruined the character of Captain America.
• Anthony Breznican interviews Anthony Mackie who plays Sam Wilson a.ka. Falcon in Captain America: Civil War. 
• Evan Narcisse shares the history of the troubled romance and eventual marriage of Vision and the Scarlet Witch in the comics. 

Comments on X-Men: Apocalypse:

• Alonso Duralde declares that X-Men: Apocalypse discovers the new mutant power of monotony.
• Todd McCarthy compares X-Men: Apocalypse to a nightmarish bumper car ride. 
• Kristy Puchco declares that X-Men: Apocalypse made her want to whisper "No more mutants."
• David Ehrlich declares that X-Men: Apocalypse is one of the most audacious superhero movies ever made.
• Geoff Berkshire is disappointed with X-Men: Apocalypse.
• Matt Singer calls X-Men: Apocalypse a journey that's both confusing and familiar. 
• Neil Miller declares that X-Men: Apocalypse proves that Bryan Singer no longer has any interesting stories to tell about these characters. 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Damien Walter explains why writing is hard. 
• M. Harold Page shares a five point checklist to deal with writer's block.
• Jim C. Hines talks about writing with depression. 
• Ada Palmer explains why she prefers writing science fiction and fantasy.
• Elizabeth Bonesteel talks about writing gender without stereotypes. 
• Sam Bowring shares some tips for coming up with fantasy names. 
• Max Florschutz points out that a character's beliefs and morals aren't necessarily the author's.
• Kathleen Baldwin talks about writing magic into a mundane world. 
• Kari Sperring talks about female socialisation and discomfort with self-promotion. 
• Kerry Creaswood points out that writers and other content creators have job security.
• Tara Cremin shares some tips for creating a great box set.
  

Interviews:

• Joy Ward interviews George R.R. Martin.
• Andrew Liptak interviews Martha Wells. 
• Andrew Liptak also interviews Sylvain Neuvel.
• Kristin Centorcelli interviews Letitia Trent. 
• Kristin Centorcelli also interviews Ada Palmer.
• Jackie Jones interviews Paul Kearney.
• Shellie Horst interviews David Tallerman.
• Dag Rambraut interviews Tim C. Taylor.
• Carl Slaughter interviews Steve Bein. 
• Rachel Swirsky interviews Spencer Ellsworth. 
• Kyra Halland interviews Rachel A. Brune. 
• The Qwillery interviews Ruth Vincent. 

Reviews:

• James Nicoll reviews Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews.
• Abigail Nussbaum reviews The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. 
• Jo Walton reviews Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer.
• Ross Johnson also reviews Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. 
• Renay Williams reviews The Vagrant by Peter Newman.
• Paul Weimer reviews The Race by Nina Allan.
• Charles Payseur reviews Court of Fives by Kate Elliott.
• E.P. Beaumont reviews The Other Half of the Sky, edited by Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt.
• Heather Rose Jones reviews The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher.
• Bookworm Blues reviews Roses and Rot by Kat Howard.
• Ilana C. Meyer also reviews Roses and Rot by Kat Howard. 
• Niall Alexander reviews Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay.
• Aaron Pound reviews Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. 
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Central Station by Lavie Tidhar. 
• Mark Yon reviews The Fireman by Joe Hill. 
• Dan Howarth also reviews The Fireman by Joe Hill. 
• Rob H. Bedford reviews Awakenings by Edward Lazellari.
• Kirkus reviews Infomocracy by Malka Older.  
• Theresa DeLucci reviews Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones.
• Jeff Somers reviews The God Wave by Patrick Hemstreet. 
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews The Invasion by Brett McBean.

Crowdfunding:

• Diana Pavlac Glyer is looking for funding to create an audio book edition of Bandersnatch, her non-fiction book about J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings. 
• Small Beer Press is looking for funding to publish John Crowley's take on The Chemical Wedding.
• Rachel Swirsky is planning to write "If you were a butt, my butt", a parody of her Nebula Award winning short story "If you were a dinosaur, my love", for charity.

Con reports:

• Natalie Zutter reports about the Target First Saturday event at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, featuring N.K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor and Ibi Zoboi.
• Trey Dorn reports that the Anime Midwest Con in Rosemont, Illinois, will share its convention space with the erotica convention Exxxotica Expo.  

Science and technology:

• Seven ways scientists get rid of gravity for experimentation.
• NASA has detected for the 1000 new extrasolar planets.
• A new dwarf planet almost the size of Pluto has been discovered. 
• Google is feeding romance novels to its artificial intelligence engine in order to improve its conversational skills. 

Free online fiction:

• "Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters" by Alice Sola Kim in Lightspeed.
• "The Stories She Tells Herself" by Kelly Sandoval in Daily Science Fiction.
• "Rocket Man" by Lynette Mejia in Daily Science Fiction. 
• "Fast Friends" by George R.R. Martin in Galaxy's Edge Magazine.
• "A Slice of Time" by Jeff Hecht in Nature.
• "The Pigeon Summer" by Brit Mandelo at Tor.com. 
• "He boiled for you and me" by T.S. Paul.
• Chapter 1 of Escape from the Free Republic by Floyd Looney.

Odds and ends:

• Watch dancing Stormtroopers invade Britain's Got Talent. 
• Read a comic about Godzilla celebrating take your child to work day.
• Watch a trailer for This Giant Papier Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy.
• Watch a trailer for The Call Up.
• Watch a trailer for Polder.
• Watch a trailer for Dolcezza Extrema.
• Watch a trailer for Merge.
• Watch a trailer for Kill Command.